Emissions testing returns (1 Viewer)

[FJ40zen]

Emissions Testing returns

Looks like it's time to start getting the 40 ready for emissions testing. Guess I'll start buying all the parts that were hacked up by the previous owner. My VSV connections were cut off with a hacksaw, I have no air pump, rail, Charcoal canister, etc. Where do I start? Guess I might as well save up for a Vortec....

 

[SARCruiser]

If it works "exactly like" the tests in Denver, as the article implies, it'll be run by a bunch of high-school dropouts who know nothing about cars and wouldn't know a smog pump from an alternator. Even if you were to get flagged by being over the limits on the exhaust test or dinged by someone who actually knows something doing one of the spot-check visual inspections, there are so many ways around this BS it's not even funny. I'm assuming they haven't changed much since I lived in Aurora and back then if you didn't pass and the estimate to "fix" your car was over a certain percentage of the value of the car you could just pay a fee to the state for driving a polluter and be on your way.

I'm in the same boat, previous owner yanked all the smog equipment out of my 60. I have no intention of spending the money to put it back in either since they rolled and clamped all the line ends shut and the whole nine yards. Be way more expensive to fix it than to just fork over the cash for whatever fines they want to impose on me.

It's nothing more than a desperate grab for money by the state. They're in so far over their eyeballs in debt in the government of this state that they're trying for anything to bring in more revenue and sucking an extra $25+ out of an extra quarter-million residents sounds like a good idea to them.

 

[madams557]

Ah, I'm so glad I have all my federal emissions exemption paperwork for my 78 FJ45.

 

[polarweasel]

It's nothing more than a desperate grab for money by the state. They're in so far over their eyeballs in debt in the government of this state that they're trying for anything to bring in more revenue and sucking an extra $25+ out of an extra quarter-million residents sounds like a good idea to them.

Desperate grab for money, or, you know, an admission that it was a bad idea to phase it out in the first place.

The article mentions early on that testing is coming back due to the region violating air-quality standards the same year you guys got rid of emissions testing. I'm guessing this is not a coincidence...

Alex

 

[FJ40zen]

Ah, I'm so glad I have all my federal emissions exemption paperwork for my 78 FJ45.

I have a '78 with 5 year Collector plates. They may possibly require tests for them, we'll have to find out later to see if they are still exempt. I agree with everything said here so far. Money grabbing politics...

 

[PabloCruise]

The article mentions early on that testing is coming back due to the region violating air-quality standards the same year you guys got rid of emissions testing. I'm guessing this is not a coincidence...

Alex

Yeah, that lasted a long time...

 

[SARCruiser]

Emissions testing is such a crock. Look and California, they have the strictest emissions standards in the US and STILL have the dirtiest air of any state in the nation and it's not like it's getting any better.

The test itself is a flawed system. As I remember, they stick your vehicle on a set of rollers, have someone get in and try to match your vehicle speed to a display on the wall as they measure the gasses coming out of your tailpipe. There is so much human error involved in that it's unbelievable. You get an incompetent tech and you could easily fail the test just by him being an idiot. Or, if you're like my friend, he had his truck tested down in Littleton and the techs did everything right until my friend realized they only bothered to put the testing device on ONE of his two tailpipes. He obviously didn't feel the need to point that one out to the techs.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Emissions testing is such a crock. Look and California, they have the strictest emissions standards in the US and STILL have the dirtiest air of any state in the nation and it's not like it's getting any better.

The test itself is a flawed system. As I remember, they stick your vehicle on a set of rollers, have someone get in and try to match your vehicle speed to a display on the wall as they measure the gasses coming out of your tailpipe. There is so much human error involved in that it's unbelievable. You get an incompetent tech and you could easily fail the test just by him being an idiot. Or, if you're like my friend, he had his truck tested down in Littleton and the techs did everything right until my friend realized they only bothered to put the testing device on ONE of his two tailpipes. He obviously didn't feel the need to point that one out to the techs.

Your point is right on! My daughter and I built her a pretty nasty Integra. The fist motor was a fairly mild LS block with a Type R head low boost supercharger and headers. It ran very clean. All was good with e-test the first time but the year following the young tech jerk decided to be aggressive on the go peddle during the test and accelerated hard on every ramp up. The car failed miserably.....go figure.... I was pissed but failed is failed. I pulled around to the front again. pulled and plugged the vacuum lines to the secondary fuel pressure regulator and advanced the timing a couple degrees which leaned it out enough that the pricks heavy foot didn't screw me out of a cert. Pass or fail at Envirojoke is all in the hands of the droid doing the test!

 

[madams557]

I have a '78 with 5 year Collector plates. They may possibly require tests for them, we'll have to find out later to see if they are still exempt. I agree with everything said here so far. Money grabbing politics...

I actually had my FJ45 when there were Larimer Cnty emissions, and I was exempt because I imported my FJ45 from Canada with all the proper paperwork, of which included a document from the EPA stating that my vehicle was exempt from vehicle emissions. I presented that to the Cnty official and he said I still need to have the test done, but that my level of emissions was unlimited. Go figure.

 

[Uncle Ben]

I have a '78 with 5 year Collector plates. They may possibly require tests for them, we'll have to find out later to see if they are still exempt. I agree with everything said here so far. Money grabbing politics...

My 40 is a '64. The article said the new standards for NC will be identical to Boulder and other front range counties. The first two times I had to renew my 5 year collector plates they re wrote the standards and I had to test each time. Since we (Boulder County) haven't had any changes to our standard since then I have not had to retest the last two times (10 years). Not saying it will happen but be warned that those of you with Collectors plates already if the standards change you might have to re qualify for the CP's by doing an e-test.

 

[MoCoNative]

The bogus part of this, is that like the LA area, or Salt Lake, the front range sits badly geographically. 300 days a year, the air quality is tolerable for the region, and does not exceed the clean air requirements. Yes, the brown cloud may roll thorugh every so often, but, it is within the limits. However, on occasion, smog and pollution is brought in from other regions and concentrates against the mountians. This triggers the failures. Smog from the pacific NW, Chicago, Southern US and even LA can and will be pumped into the area with specific storm and weather events. Then is gets isolated and stranded over Denver.

A reduction in local emmisions will help, but EPA dinging the Denver Metro area for poor air quality on days that the smog came from a thousand miles away is stupid. Furthermore, the objective of the car manufactures of today, has been to build junk, and make you buy a new car every few years. I would really like to see the percentages of older vehicles registered and on the road, compared to new ones, and just how much polluting a small number of vehicles can really do.

Look around these cities and tell me how many vehicles you see from the 70's, 80's or even before 1990, not that many, so why worry about testing 30 year old vehicles.

 

[SARCruiser]

Look around these cities and tell me how many vehicles you see from the 70's, 80's or even before 1990, not that many, so why worry about testing 30 year old vehicles.

Exactly. My good friend just got back from a trip to LA, San Diego, and that area. He was telling me (completely unrelated to the discussion of emissions) about how the whole time he was there he saw MAYBE 20 cars older than a 2000. That was on the 7 lanes one direction of downtown LA traffic too. New vehicles are exempt for the first 4 years of their existence from EPA emissions testing. I would be really interested to know how many of these new cars fail emissions the very first year they are tested.... and how many would fail their first year off the factory line.

 

[FJ40zen]

This thread has brought out all the responses that I suspected. I am glad I don't feel like the only one that thinks that the older vehicle owners that drive less than 5K miles a year are being targeted. Maybe I left my choke on a little longer than I wanted while a greenie was following me... I also like to bring up the fact that I don't like to spend $$$ on a new vehicle that is highly depreciable and virtually all plastic, which is actually... Oh, well, I can go on and on... I think that, all in all, we do need to make sure we are all keeping the older rigs in tune so we don't attract attention. Just like being good trail stewards, we need to set an example that can be respected.

 

[COChef]

from what Im reading on the web page, us in Larimer county are safe "for now" not sure when that will change though. Im in the "PO ripped all the smog off" boat, so hopefully I'll just be able to pay a fione bto get my yearly registration.

 

[FJ40zen]

Me too, since I have a Cal spec cruiser. Don't think I'll be looking for those fine parts. (VSV especially)

 

[COChef]

I mean think of all the REAL mods you could get for the cost of a RE-smog...